Kelly concern over Croker no-shows

GAA president Sean Kelly has pledged “a long, hard look” by authorities at the venues for early round championship games to avoid a repeat of teams slugging it out in front of tiny Croke Park crowds.

Sunday's triple-header in Croke Park was an opportunity to let some of the summer sunlight reflect on the GAA lesser lights, but it turned into a humbling experience for the GAA with just over 17,000 people passing through the Croke Park turnstiles 11,000 tickets having been given out to primary school children.

"The audience on Sunday was disappointing," Kelly agreed. "The championship is what everyone looks forward to. Players and managers put the maximum effort in for this time of year and it is very hard for them when they don't see more fans coming out."

Not only was the 17,142 at Croke Park disturbing for the six counties involved, but it meant Croke Park was used for the second time in six days at an operating loss. Only marginally more turned up at the Allianz Hurling league finals last Monday.

"We have to look at it," Kelly said. "There is no point in playing matches in Croke Park that cost us money. It takes approximately 30,000 to come through the gates to make any game there viable, and if we are only getting crowds of 17,000 and we are losing money, like we have done on the last two occasions, then we have to ask ourselves serious questions. Nobody will be able to survive in this world if they keep putting on events in Croke Park that are losing money.

"From a purely business point of view, we will have to look at putting games like those on in such a big venue in the future. But I hope the public will start coming out from now on. Sunday proved what the championship can be about, there were some fantastic games and some great shocks. And they are our games, after all."

The triple-header came about after the new GAA chief met with Leinster council officers. Nobody could have foreseen such a small attendance.

"We played an extra game there to give it more of a sense of occasion. It was the only exception to the rule of having a maximum of two games on the new surface," Kelly said.

"We did it to accommodate counties that don't usually play there. And I talked with officers in the Leinster Council and they have all been hopeful of getting more than 30,000 for the three games together. The 17,000 that did turn up was way below the mark.

"A lot of supporters were only interested in their own county and weren't too keen on the three games. Lessons will be learnt from it, we have to try these things but we also have to learn from them if they don't work out."

However, while the Leinster Council may lose money as a result of the small crowd in Croke Park on Sunday, council secretary Michael Delaney said yesterday they felt vindicated by their decision to stage them at headquarters, on the basis that it had raised the profile of the games for the players.

"It's hard to say if we lost money or not, but it wasn't a great profit-making one," he commented in advance of a meeting with stadium officials.

"The people who are best pleased are the players and I suppose that's important. There was a good reaction from them. They were very happy to have played there."

Delaney insisted that had they played the games as originally scheduled at different venues he doubted very much that they would have had a cumulative attendance of 17,000.

"Attendance-wise, as many people saw the games, maybe more. And, there was a promotional element to it and you have to pay for that too. We gave out about 11,000 tickers to schools, but they weren't all used up."

Although there was a healthy crowd in Clones to see All-Ireland champions Armagh lose their Ulster crown to Monaghan, Cork was the scene of another poor crowd. But, like everyone, Kelly is hopeful that Sunday's double shock will alert people to the fact the championship has actually started. The president wasn't surprised by either result.

"Limerick have been coming the past three or four years, they should have beaten Kerry last year. They have won the under-21 championship, almost won the minor championship. So, although it might have been a shock to the general public, it shouldn't have been a shock to anyone who knows their football," he said.

"I was in Monaghan on Saturday, and was surprised at how confident the Monaghan supporters were. They were going down to Clones to win and fair play to them, they did it. Sunday certainly whets the appetite for more in the next few months."

Attendance figures for games in

Leinster last year substantiate Delaney's assertion about the cumulative attendance figure. There was a crowd of just 2,500 for Wicklow's game against Laois in Dr Cullen Park and 4,000 for the Carlow/Westmeath game in Portlaoise.